Imouto no Yousei
This is what happens when you whip out old seiyuu albums and burned mixes on a boring Sunday afternoon.
I defer to WAAAAAGH for his pointed illustration of Mei in CLANNAD. But while reading about it (there and elsewhere …) and watching the particular episode myself, it occurred to me that this was exactly the same, magical formula sans the cheesy 90s pop. This magic formula, I mean–
It’s nothing about feet, even. It is the strange feeling of seeing, say, this–
And the word “no” flashes in my head like the idiot light in my car; the physical embodiment in a warm, glowing yellow, that adorns the traditional sense of caution. I hope I don’t need to tell you what little girls should be afraid of, right?
What I do want to see, you mad lovely MAD makers, is someone chopping up episode 3 of CLANNAD After Story into a minute and half of lovely, well-directed Kyoani goodness that showcases Mei as the lead character to Dinogiga. Heck, all you need to use is the song, and I’ll be a satisfied customer.
Macross Frontier Hard Choices Medley
Random talking points incoming:
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Regarding the ending, one thing about the ending that few liked is how it’s not conclusive in terms of the relationships. I think regardless how we feel about it, the show can use an epilogue. The way I see it, we really could use more excuses to release more music from this damn show. A movie, OAV, concert live, whatever. More is all good, to be precise.
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While people are trying hard to figure out who will Alto choose, I was having a hard time choosing which songs to include in a mixed CD. I suppose back in the mixed-tape days I can fit 90 to 120 minutes on the average cassette, and even today I’m using some kind of PMP that can store the whole thing anyways, most of the time. But the exercise is not just an inertial tradition, but one of honing one’s mind and instinct by getting rid of excess and forcing yourself to make good, hard choices.
How would you mix up a Macross Frontier vocal collection on CD?
Here’s mine. Annotated with [] for extra geekness:
- Aimo [Honestly, this is the easiest way to fit this song, and it has to be this version; and it is quite the vital song in the show so there’s no way to leave it out. I actually like the beefed up evil Ranka version but listening to it reminds me how much better it could be if someone, like, Origa, was singing it GITS-style.]
- Welcome to My Fanclub’s Night (Sheryl On Stage) [I like this super cheesy song. Sue me. It is also a good picker-upper, if you use it like how OST1 uses it]
- What ’bout my Star? (Sheryl On Stage) [Because you know you want to burn it gapless, plus I can’t decide if I like Sheryl ver or Ranka ver more.]
- Anata no oto [I think this is the best track on OST2, even if Ao no Ether and Yousei give it a run for its money]
- Triangler [To remind you someone like Maaya Sakamoto is out there, making music that pwns May’n and Nakajima any day.]
- Seikan Hikou [I like the main melody and the lead in, plus it’s got the KIRA \m/]
- Northern Cross [Beats Lion any day. <3 Sheryl. Also like how it is the ending song, it works as a transition to the slower part of the CD. I guess if you want to squeeze in Lion or something you can dump it in front of this track.]
- Yousei [The best Sheryl song on OST2, I guess; didn’t expect it but I was plesantly surprised. Especially because it doesn’t grow on you at first yet it is quite durable to listen to repeatedly. We need that.]
- Ao no Ether [This song was a bit of a surprise like Yousei. They used it in the show but the full arrangement was impressive. Reminds me of all those progessive rhythm ballad songs Kanno wrote for her mecha show ending songs]
- Ninjin Loves you yeah [I can spare a minute for some LULZ…]
- “Super Dimension Chinese Restaurant Nyan Nyan” CM Song (Ranka Version) […let alone 25 seconds]
- Neko Nikki [I really like this track for some reason; probably my sole reason in buying the Seikan Hikou single, but it also works as a slower way to ease back to the more dramatic part of the CD]
- Ai Oboeteimasuka? ~ bless the little queen [When the word on the street was that Kanno is going to get her hands dirty with some classic Macross tracks, I got a little (more) excited. This is her “final product” so to speak and it does not disappoint (unlike the others). Plus, you gotta have that one old track tuck into the ultimate mix somewhere.]
- What ’bout my Star @Formo [Like I said, I can’t choose. Plus this was probably my favorite track from OST1. It ramps up the tempo on the album arrangement for the final stretch.]
- Infinity [This song deserves a lot more attention; but at the same time it reminds me how a lot of May’n tracks blur together after a while because they are similarly arranged.]
- Nyan Nyan Service Medley [To me, this song is the same as a REALLY LONG version of Lion with added parts. And it works well to round things out, just like on OST2.]
- Diamond Crevasse [Best May’n song in the show IMO. Plus, it sounds tailored to her in terms of just how everything flows together, the notes she has to hit, etc. As much as it would be neat to see a Megumi Nakajima version, I don’t think she can come even close to how well May’n did it. It’s slightly more preferrable than the Shinkuu version due to flow on the mix, but also the Shinkuu version is pretty much the same as this version.]
…looks like I even arranged the mix like how OST1 and OST2 did flow-wise. Sigh. It’s not even on purpose!
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Those of us who do not subscribe to the concept that ignorance is bliss may dig too deep and find this fairly epic adventure, Yoko On Stage, as I put it. When Yoko Kanno takes the stage you can bet your collective arses that it will be a memorable time. A memorable time that I’m not a part of. DVDBRD please?
I guess the consolation prize is this AFA08 thing that is happening over at Singapore. Singapore is a nice place to visit, so I’m sure it will improve Japanese-Singapore relationship as a bunch of 20-30yo makes their way from the ‘burbs of Tokyo to the land of delicious crabs and other Indochina delicacies. It would be wise to leave that almond tofu at home and bring some indigestion meds.
Perpetual Bewilderment with Haruka Nogizaka
I am still unable to pin down what about Haruka Nogizaka and her secret that made it what it was. I think while the general consensus is relatively accurate–a comfortable romantic comedy about sensitivity, trust, and blossoming into who you are; but of little else–it doesn’t quite capture everything remarkable.
I’m feeling a bit of the same for Kannagi. The obvious thing about Kannagi is that it is very well produced, and things look…very nice. The acting is fun and the whole setup is amusing enough. It’s entertaining yet so fully dripping in cliche that it becomes comfortable rather than irritating been-done.
Perhaps that line is where Haruka’s Secret straddles. For the most part, both shows are nothing really to write home about. There are trace amounts of suspense, of slapstick comedy, and a variable amount of drama. Romance seems like a carrot-on-a-stick but both boys and girls of the era of late-night anime fandom expect it. How can we complain about romantic side plots in Hollywood blockbusters; or worse, are we bottom feeding mimicry of our mainstream shadows? Does that explain why there’s so much crap about anime on tvtropes?
But none of that is truly bad, and none of that is desirable (obviously). It’s like a good stir-fry of leftovers that somehow produces a dish that you would like to eat again once in a while? If moe-blobs are a type of flavored soft drink, then the Nogizaka brand is probably a blend of healing properties with familiar flavors. Which is why it wasn’t so hard to stomach the same taste day in and day out in a blend that isn’t so soothing. Kannagi would just be a premium brand of the same, minus some of that tenderness.
At the same time it’s easy to understand those who protest exactly those flavors. What I don’t understand is how suddenly these protesters could turn around choose the same flavors, but perhaps packaged slightly differently. Maybe that just means I don’t quite understand myself.
I’ll give up for now.
Nana, Xam’d Updates
Since Sony’s video store ops have no inclination to pump out press releases or blog posts or anything in regards to the switching on/off of series, all I have is speculation.
Speculating is fun, right? We know that Xam’d came upon the anime scene much like the Second Coming, just nowhere as purportedly awesome. But it’s like a thief that came like the PSN Video Store announcement, day-date. And a healthy “what the hell is this? how do you say it?” when people are pummeling the preview video and episode 1 rips around the web. Heck, it still doesn’t have an English-language, official homepage dedicated to the show itself. Hey Sony, did you dropped the ball and couldn’t find it or what?
This past weekend I was out of town but somehow I was able to show that same trailer in front of a half-dozen people. It impressed at least one. But at the same time I wasn’t able to camp the PSN site like a hawk. Maybe I should just take a clue and check only on Wednesday mornings. The new PS3 firmware update is suppose to come out soon, but maybe in a future one they should add a RSS feed reader linked to their store?
Who am I kidding, you can just go to the web version of the PSN video store and see what has been added from the web.
Going back to speculation, the Japanese PSN Video Store (and its dirty, 30-day rentals) is putting out 2 episodes of Xam’d each week since September’s launch, so they’ll catch up roughly in another 2-3 weeks to episode 12. I hope from that point on they will do day-date Japan/US releases, or at least that’s the sensible thing to guess. If not, then there’ll be hell to pay.
Of course, that speculative reality begs the question again. Without being 100% exclusive, will it increase or decrease the incentive for me to keep buying, $4 a week? Probably not. Obviously it’s still exclusive in terms of being translated to English, and I think those of us who’ve stuck to it are a bit hooked. As you know, Xam’d is excellent and having 5.1 sound and hi-def to go with, it’s a tough thing to say no to once you’ve seen how good it looks with your own eyes. Rationalizing only does so much against physical impressions.
Being fans, we can distract ourselves with massive QQing and /b/-type antics on the Playstation Blog or something, until the next episode comes out. Not a terrible idea IMO.
Well, clearly this means I’m not going to blog Xam’d the next couple weeks, unless something positively surprising happens. Sorry folks! The leaked episode 13 is definitely intriguing but I don’t think I’m going to write about it even if I do end up watching it. Not until the official release anyways. I guess it’s like, lol, a vacation. And maybe the service disruption might actually cause some mindless fansub sheeples to ask “where’s Xam’d 13-14-15-16?” and figure out it isn’t a fansub like any other and it’s totally just warez-out goodness. Mmmm warez.
In other news, Nana has turned from Osaki to Komatsu. That good news should brighten someone’s day…?
ef: esoteric femininity
Of the myriad things the letters ‘e’ and ‘f’ can stand for, that one stood out today. For that matter, of the myriad new shows this season, many solid entries, too, ef stands out like neatly folded (or unfolded, for that matter) underpants.
It is an unintentional effect, but maybe that is because my brain really lives inside my balls? When the blood gets flowing, my mind makes way not for fleshly instincts but ascends. Like a leaping whale breaking the surface of the sea, a momentary clarity that pierces through complexity to reveal its simple underneath, or in reverse, reconstruct the intricacies of a simple, elegant principle in motion.
Like how the gaze of a thousand men and women that pierced Nagi Hirono’s naked body? I think there’s something to be said about that, the scene, and why it’s there. As terse as some may do so.
Thematically, hoping to state the obvious, ef catches the attention of its viewers with a striking view of its heroines. Okay, bad pun. Can we even call the way ef present them as “view”? I think the women in the show are the reason; they are what makes ef such striking visual amateur-avant-garde-SHAFTxSHINBO festivals. It’s like, you can’t put a tropical fish in a freshwater tank; and girls like Miyako, Chihiro and Kei (and Nagi, Yuko and Mizuki, hopefully), their issues, and their charm points have to be framed in their own special way.
Because women like them don’t exist in the vacuum of our real world. Or when they do, they don’t stand out like a single rose out of a patch of brier. It’s not like Chihiro’s memory of Renji, at any rate.
The game of finding and producing moe blobs and selling character appeal to the moe-otaku crowd is not always won by logic or reason, so the popularity of ef (Yay? Chihiro made it past Saimoe ‘08 QF?) in the same character-driven, character-appeal-driven market stands strong because of the unique characters, their equally unique characterization, and a shameless plea towards the esoteric. Make no mistake; it’s not because they are “better” characters by logic or reason. The femininity displayed in ef is still mostly ordinary; I would point them out if I was better equipped to analyze what makes an anime girl an anime girl, but I’m not.
But that is not important. At the hands of an artful storyteller, even the ordinary is radical.
